Kathie Bracy's Blog

A forum for Ohio educators, sharing thoughts regarding their health care and pension system (STRS Ohio). Researcher John Curry manages a clearinghouse of related e-mails, articles, announcements, etc. His daily mailings include many items that do not make it to this blog. Contact John (curryfeezer@yahoo.com) if you wish to be on his e-mail list. Kathie Bracy: kbb47@aol.com.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

New book on pension woes in US

Older Americans face an uncertain retirement thanks to a new U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruling (see front page) and corporations that fall back on promises to provide their workers with the deferred compensation they earned in their working years.

A new book by Thomas J. Mackell, When the Good Pensions Go Away, proposes a dramatic overhaul to current U.S. legislation, among other changes, in order to ensure Americans can retire comfortably.

Mackell is the chairman of the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and president of the Association of Benefit Administrators. He is recognized as an expert in the U.S. pension and healthcare systems.

When the Good Pensions Go Away, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, is due out in bookstores in March 2008, and available at a 32% discount to retirees on www.amazon.com.

Newsletter from ProtectSeniors.Org

From RH Jones, March 19, 2008Subject: Fw: Read the Latest Newsletter from ProtectSeniors.Org

To all:

I am not going to comment on this letter. Please read it and just make up your own mind. In this case, I am speaking only for myself.

RHJones, a retired STRS member

Read the Latest Newsletter from ProtectSeniors.Org

ProtectSeniors.Org is dedicated to passing legislation that will save retirees' earned health care benefits from being reduced or taken away by corporations across America.

One of the ways we get our message out is through our newsletter, Seniors Advocate. Some of our members receive this newsletter by mail, but for the many who signed up online, we don't always have a mailing address. We would like to share this newsletter with all who have visited ProtectSeniors.Org. Please click on the link below to view the latest newsletter from our organization. Click here to read the latest ProtectSeniors.Org newsletter.

If you do NOT get our newsletter via U.S. Mail and are interested in receiving the printed version, please email info@protectseniors.org with your mailing address and we will update our records.

Duane Tron: The most incompetent, corrupt, arrogant and out-of-touch Congress in the history of this country

The scary thing is their stock had been at $200 a share last month. This is the first time in my life I can recall the Federal Reserve holding an emergency meeting on a Sunday. Intervention by the Fed is too little too late. Why? The current administration has steadfastly refused to intercede into what has been going on at Wall Street for the past eight years. In fact I have written Congressman Jim Jordan several times and expressed concerns over what I describe as shoddy and marginal banking practices that have been occurring from the subprime mortgages to the out-of-control credit schemes.

I told my wife when the Republican-controlled Congress deregulated the banks, and everything else, they were flinging open the doors to all kinds of abuse. The people I contacted told me I didn't know what I was talking about. They told me it would create more competition and thus improve the economy. I told many that unregulated banks are like leaving pizza in an adjoining room at a Weight Watchers Convention and expecting to find it there when the convention ends.

The zeal for higher and higher profits has been driving the markets at clips that have never been seen before; that is with the exception of the late 1920's! The problem? It's like anything that is done to excess. Eventually things are going to catch up and this is what's happening. Newton's Law of Gravity states "that whatever goes up must come down" and this is the same principle I ascribe to economics. The problem is when they tossed out regulation they assured that we were going to see a harder landing than any of these fools could ever anticipate, or envision.

The problem is we have two, and a new third, generations of people in this country who have NEVER experienced, let alone lived through tough times. We have two adult generations who do NOT have any clue what it's like to do without. For those of us who grew up at the end of the Great Depression (my brother and sister were both born early during the Depression) we know. For those of us who grew up in four room houses without indoor plumbing, no hot water, no central heat, no microwaves, no television, no PC's, no Blue Tooth, no stereos, no real conveniences, no dishwasher, no washing machine, no dryer, and you get the idea, they have no clue!

For those who never grew their own fruits and vegetables, and cooked and canned them they have no idea. For those who never experienced the ice truck coming to the house to bring block ice to keep things from spoiling in the 'ice box,' they have no clue. For those who never had to go and weed an acre garden and hang all of the clothes on a clothesline they have no clue. For those who never grew up in a home where we had a single car and it was usually ten years old, or more, they have no clue. For those who never woke up on Christmas morning to find a stocking stuffed with hard tack candy, a few little toys, and received a couple of pairs of socks, or a pair of mittens, or a winter hat; and received one toy of some kind and a couple of oranges they have no clue! THEY HAVE NO CLUE! My wife and I do as we have both been there, experienced that, seen that, and lived that!

I felt like the Paul Revere of the Internet during the past four years and the problem is that unlike Paul riding in 1776 nobody today would listen. After all these were just the ramblings of a disgruntled old man! They are going to find out what it's like and I pray our entire fund doesn't go down the toilet because of the idiots and morons we have elected time and time again over the past 20+ years. When there isn't anyone guarding the hen house don't go out and expect to find any chickens left! This is where we find ourselves. Bear Stearns & Co. is just the beginning! There is an economic principle I call the "domino effect." Nothing of this magnitude happens that it doesn't reverberate throughout the economy. I assure everyone that the Fed can't step up and provide the kind of intervention they provided Bear Stearns & Co. in every situation that will occur.

Unregulated hedge funds, junk bonds, insider trading, subprime lending and other get rich fast schemes have damaged the markets more severely than anyone in Washington has been smart enough to realize or understand. I have told dozens of so-called lawmakers, who have been denying we are in a recession, that Ohio bypassed the recession part and went straight to a depression. This has been the case with many Midwestern states due to these ignorant and unregulated free trade agreements they negotiated. I assure everyone that the fat cats transferred most of their money and investments into offshore accounts outside of the United States during the past ten years. Many banks moved operations to Bermuda and other locations where they didn't have to pay taxes, etc.

For those who feel like someone has stuck something up your rear ends get used to it! I keep telling everyone that we aren't going to see any real change until we boot both the Republicans and Democrats, create a new third party, and elect a moderate group and send them to Washington. The people who have been running this country have run it into the ground like the previous STRS Board were trying to do with our retirement. I assure everyone we aren't out of the woods yet with what is taking place on Wall Street. I have pointed out time and again that the present United States Congress is the most incompetent, corrupt, arrogant and out-of-touch Congress I have observed in the entire history of the United States and I am a retired history teacher and administrator!

By Jim MackinnonBeacon Journal business writerPublished on Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008Among the 100 top shareholders in investment bank Bear Stearns & Co. are Ohio's two largest public pensions, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio fund and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement fund.

STRS was the troubled bank's 43rd largest shareholder as of Dec. 31, while OPER was 57th, according to the most recent data from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But the amount of Bear Stearns stock the Ohio funds own is a minuscule percentage of their overall assets of about $150 billion, according to records and the organization.

STRS lost about $17 million in its Bear Stearns holdings Monday as it sold all but 127,000 of its 790,000 shares at between $3.50 and $4 a share, spokeswoman Laura Ecklar said.

That loss was more than made up by the $27 million increase in value during the day in the 6.6 million shares it owns in JPMorgan Chase & Co., she said. JPMorgan shares rose 10 percent after the company agreed to buy Bear Stearns as part of a financial system rescue package engineered by the Federal Reserve and the federal government.

Bear Stearns stock on Friday, when it closed at $30 a share, made up only 0.03 percent of the estimated $73.5 billion in diversified assets owned by the STRS pension fund, she said. The pension currently pays 122,000 retired Ohio teachers.

''In the last 24 hours, we have purchased $150 million in global and domestic equities,'' Ecklar said. ''We're long-term investors.''

Likewise, the Bear Stearns stock plunge would have only a small effect on the value of the estimated $69.7 billion in assets in the pension fund and $13.2 billion in assets in the health-care fund owned as of Dec. 31 by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement plan, spokesman Rich Baker said.

The funds pay benefits to about 206,000 retirees and beneficiaries, Baker said.

The two funds sold most of their Bear Stearns shares last week, he said. On Monday, the funds lost about $300,000 when the value of its remaining shares plunged, while the plans' JPMorgan shares rose $23.6 million, he said.

''These type of situations typically have a minimum impact on us,'' he said.

The "Tough Choices or Tough Times" report of the National Commission on Skills in the Workplace, funded in large part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and signed by a bipartisan collection of prominent politicians, businesspeople, and urban school superintendents, called for a series of measures including:

(a) replacing public schools with what the report called "contract schools", which would be charter schools writ large;

(b) eliminating nearly all the powers of local school boards - their role would be to write and sign the authorizing agreements for the "contract schools;

(c) eliminating teacher pensions and slashing health benefits; and

(d) forcing all 10th graders to take a high school exit examination based on 12th grade skills, and terminating the education of those who failed (i.e., throwing millions of students out into the streets as they turn 16).

These measures, taken together, would effectively cripple public control of public education. They would dangerously weaken the power of teacher unions, thus facilitating still further attacks on the public sector. They would leave education policy in the hands of a network of entrepreneurial think tanks, corporate entrepreneurs, and armies of lobbyists whose priorities are profiting from the already huge education market while cutting back on public funding for schools and students.

Indeed, their measures would mean privatization of education, effectively terminating the right to a public education, as we have known it. Many of the most powerful forces in the country want the US, the first country to guarantee public education, to be the first country to end it.

For the last fifty years, public education was one of only two public mandates guaranteed by the government that was accessible to every person, regardless of income. Social Security is the other. Now both systems are threatened with privatization schemes. The government today openly defines its mission as protecting the rights of corporations above everything. Thus public education is a rare public space that is under attack.

The same scenario is being implemented with most of the services that governments used to provide for free or at little cost: electricity, national parks, health care and water. In every case, the methodology is the same: underfund public services, create an uproar and declare a crisis, claim that privatization can do the job better, deregulate or break public control, divert public money to corporations and then raise prices.

In the past year, it's become evident that the corporate surge against public schools is only part of a much broader assault against the public sector, against unions, and indeed against the public's rights and public control of public institutions.

This has been evident for some time now in New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina's devastation is used as an excuse for permanently privatizing the infrastructure of a major American city: razing public housing and turning land over to developers; replacing the city's public school system with a combination of charter schools and state-run schools; letting the notorious Blackwater private army loose on the civilian population; and, in the end, forcing tens of thousands of families out of the city permanently. The citizens of New Orleans have had their civil rights forcibly expropriated.

Just as the shock of the hurricane was the excuse for the shock therapy applied to New Orleans, so the economic downturn triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis is now the excuse for a national assault on the public sector and the public's rights. . .

In public education, the corporate surge has grown both qualitatively and quantitatively. Where two years ago the corporate education change agents were mainly operating in a relatively small number of large urban areas, they have now surfaced everywhere. The corporatization of public education is the leading edge of privatization. This has the effect of silencing the public voice on every aspect of the situation.

Across the US, public schools are not yet privatized, though private services are increasingly benefiting from this market. However, increasing corporate control of programs - a different mix in every locale - is having a chilling influence on the very things that people (though not corporations) want from teachers: the ability to relate to and teach each child, a nurturing approach that nudges every child to move ahead, human assessments that put people before performance on standardized tests.

Perhaps the single most dramatic development of the corporate approach was the launching of the $60 million Strong American Schools - Ed in '08 initiative, funded by billionaires Bill Gates and Eli Broad. This is a naked effort to purchase the nation's education policy, no matter who is elected President, by buying their way into every electoral forum.

Ed in '08 has a three-point program: merit pay (basing teachers' compensation on students' scores on high stakes test); national education standards (enforcing conformity and rote learning); and longer school day and school year (still more time for rote learning, less time for kids to be kids. . . )

Where two years ago charter schools were still viewed as experiments affecting a relatively small number of students, in 2007 the corporate privatizers - led by Broad and Gates - grossly expanded their funding to the point where they now loom as a major presence.

In March, the Gates Foundation announced a $100 million donation to KIPP charter schools, which would enable them to expand their Houston operation to 42 schools (from eight) - effectively, KIPP will be a full-fledged alternative school system in Houston. Also in the past year, Eli Broad and Gates have given in the neighborhood of $50 million to KIPP and Green Dot charter schools in Los Angeles, with the aim of doubling the percentage of LA students enrolled in charter schools. Oakland, another Broad/Gates targets, now has more than 30 charter schools out of 92. And, as we shall see below, the same trend holds across the country.

NCLB in 2008 is still a major issue. It continues to have a corrosive effect on public schools. It is designed an unfunded mandate, which means that schools must meet ever rigid standards every year, though no more money is appropriated to support this effort. This means that schools must take ever-more money out of the class room to meet federal requirements when schools with low test scores are in "Program Improvement". Once schools are in PI for 5 years they can be forced into privatization.

NCLB is a driving force that decimates the "publicness" in public schools. In California, more than 2000 schools are now in "Program-Improvement". This means that they have to meet certain specific, and mostly impossible standards, or they must divert increasingly greater amounts of money out of the classroom and into private programs.

For example, schools in 3rd year PI must take money out of programs that helped schools with a high proportion of low achieving schools and make it available to private tutors. . .

Privatizing public schools inevitably leads to a massive increase in social inequality. Private corporations have never been required to recognize civil rights, because, by definition, these are public rights. If the corporate privatizers succeed in taking over our schools, there will be neither quality education nor civil rights.

The system of public education in the United States is deeply flawed. While suburban schools are among the best in the world, public education in cities has been deliberately underfunded and is in shambles. The solution is not to fight backwards to maintain the old system. Rather it is to fight forward to a new system that will truly guarantee quality education as a civil right for everyone.

Central to this is to challenge the idea that everything in human society should be run by corporations, that only corporations and their political hacks have the right or the power to discuss what public policy should be. . .

The real direction is to increase the role and power of the public in every way, not eliminate it.

Jim N. Reed: Letter to Lancaster Eagle-Gazette in support of Dan Vincent

During April every active, contributing member of STRS Ohio will have an opportunity to vote for a representative on the STRS Board. This new Board member will join ten others, either elected or appointed, to make critical decisions that will affect 440,000 current and prospective retirees.

Active educators will choose between two men who have met the petition requirements. Each candidate is offering his education experience, philosophy and other credentials.

Concerned Ohio Retired Educators believe Dr. Daniel Vincent offers the best credentials to continue the Renaissance initiated at STRS following the 2003 award-winning investigative report of the retirement system's mismanagement by Board members and its Executive Director. Dr. Vincent has been an educator since 1978, beginning as a sixth grade teacher and speech therapist before becoming a middle school principal, assistant superintendent and serving currently as Director of Curriculum with the Medina County Educational Service Center.

Dr. Vincent pledges to educators "to stop the return to a 'rubber stamp' Board and to be a guardian of your pension and healthcare in accordance with ORC 3307.15, and continue the reforms."

Taxpayers from each local school district also have a stake in this election. Local Boards of Education send 14% of educator salaries annually to STRS as provided by law. This contribution comes from the property taxes in each of the local school districts. Taxpayers are certainly entitled to transparency and accountability of the expenditure of these monies. Board members need to be professionally qualified with the utmost personal integrity.

Active educators have a most important choice to make in April. Their choice not only will directly affect the future of 440,000 fellow educators but the credibility of their profession in the eyes of an ever inquiring public.

I strongly encourage your support of Dr. Daniel Vincent for the contributing members' representative seat on the STRS Board. As a professional educator, take time to be STRS-literate and make an informed investment in your future and that of the public taxpayer.

Monday, March 17, 2008

From Duane Tron, March 14, 2008Subject: The charter school stench continues in Florida!

Congressman,

This is the kind of garbage you and other charter school advocates are promoting. This is disgraceful and most charter schools are a disgrace. Why? You can't replace schools where teachers and the community care about their children with a privatized system that promotes profit and greed. This will not foster or perpetuate education at its finest. I have spent many years working with at-risk inner-city children and they can be taught, and they can learn, in a nurturing and caring environment. There is a big difference between programs such as the one I help operate where we care about the kids, and the community, and the for-profit charter school garbage dumps you and others are promoting!

I have been following charter schools and vouchers closely and have determined they aren't about "true" educational choice. They are about people like your friend, David Brennan, fleecing the American people and trying to do it under the banner of better education. I haven't visited or observed a single charter school in Ohio that is better than the worst public school.

You tout the ideals of fiscal responsibility and protecting taxpayer dollars and then you promote a bunch of worthless schools that have one purpose and that is to rip off the taxpayers and deliver shoddy programs. I told you before I have the real answer to fixing education in this country and you just keep going down the narrow path of limited vision.

This means one of two things. The first is you don't really care about quality education and you are a supporter of corporate schools that are motivated by greed and profit motives as opposed to caring about children. Or secondly, it means you really lack a true grasp of what constitutes quality education. Since I have known you since you were a little kid I sure hope it's the second one but that doesn't speak well of your qualifications to be serving in Congress.

Nobody detests the OEA more than me. I know they have been one of the biggest obstacles to quality education in many schools across Ohio. They are bad news as they have never placed the welfare of our children ahead of their personal greed and power issues. On the other hand It is very bad on your part to engage in a strategy where you throw the baby out with the bath water and this is what you have been doing. Taking local control of schools away from the people is not the answer and is counter to the ideals of the Founding Fathers. If the OEA is the problem, and we both know they are, then take on the OEA and address the issues by diminishing their power but don't do it by destroying local schools.

Read the following article as it really points to the issues I am speaking to. I haven't heard from you in quite some time. I guess once you get up on the "Hill" you don't have time for ordinary people like myself. I have to go in and have a heart catheterization as I have some heart issues that need repair. I have been experiencing some heart problems for some time. At least I still have a heart unlike some politicians we elect to office and they forget where they came from! My heart may quit on me but it will be because of a physical and age issue and not because of the loss of my spirit and soul!

If the school privatization mob could sink to a more morally bankrupt position, I don't know what it could be. For years conservatives who don't give a rat's patootie for the plight of the poor or the brown have disingenuously argued that poor parents should be given a choice of good schools just like the parents who can afford private schools.

That kind of cynical abuse of social sentiment just got exposed once more in Florida, as legislators of both parties try to finagle a way to give corporations huge tax credits for money they funnel through non-profit charters that, then, hand over cheap vouchers to poor families, vouchers that actually represent a reduction from what the State now spends in the public schools for these same children.

It's not called vouchers anymore because the Florida Supreme Court ruled those unconstitutional. How about corporate tax credit scholarships? I am wondering if Florida taxpayers want to assure that the obscene profits by McGraw-Hill and Pearson go untaxed, profits that both companies have extracted from the blood, sweat, and tears of the state's children and teachers. And what kind of scholarships are being offered? The 20 to 30K needed to enroll in a good private school? No, no, we are talking about $3,750 for a cheap charter school with poorly paid teachers who have been certified through ABCTE. Yes, Jeb Bush made sure that ABCTE would have a big footprint in Florida's brave new world of corporate socialist schools.

. . . ."It's going to be really difficult for us to support any expansion in corporate vouchers in an environment where the Legislature and state are having trouble properly financing schools," said Mark Pudlow, a spokesman for the Florida Education Association.

State lawmakers already are poised to cut more than $300 million from education early this month, and more cuts could come by May. Gaetz, however, counters that vouchers could wind up saving the state money - a point echoed in a 2007 analysis done by the Collins Center for Public Policy. The argument is that it's cheaper to hand out a $3,750 private-school voucher than have the state pay $7,000 for each student in a public school.

Pudlow, however, said certain school expenses will continue no matter the size of a classes.

"The school is going to still be there, the lights will still be on and the buses will still roll," he said.

Corporations earn a credit on their state income-tax bills if they provide money to organizations that provide a voucher. Only children who qualify for reduced-price or free lunches are eligible for what are called corporate tax credit scholarships. . . .Posted by Jim Horn

Sunday, March 16, 2008

A Must-Read for all of us

From John Curry, March 13, 2008Subject: I sure hope that everyone at STRS reads this message. We are headed toward a market that I have never seen before!!!! We all need our monthly checks to survive. Gasoline was $3.45 in Lima.

A fellow CORE member (and astute investor) has supplied a link THAT WE MUST ALL READ! The banks and the Wall Street boys have enjoyed an extended period of a mostly unregulated free-for-all do-whatever-you-want-to-do and we are now going to pay for it....BIG TIME! THIS IS A MUST READ! I don't want you to panic BUT THIS IS SERIOUS AND HAS SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR STRS! John

Sell stocks while the selling's good

The euphoria over the Dow's 400-point day isn't going to last. But smart investors can avoid the worst of any train wreck ahead by unloading most stocks and nongovernment bonds soon.

Central banks and corporate leaders are locked in the battle of their lives this month as they join in efforts to head off the worst credit crisis in at least four decades, pulling every monetary and fiscal trick in the book -- and inventing some mutant new ones.

Yet veteran observers are swiftly coming to the conclusion that attempts to regain world financial stability could be doomed due to a stunning crash of commercial-debt financing and lack of trusted leadership, and they now believe private investors should take advantage of any rallies to purge their portfolios of most stocks and nongovernment bonds. Read more.....

REAL prescription drug costs: Be enlightened!

From RH Jones, March 11, 2008Subject: Fw: REPLY Re: Prescription Drug costs-Read all the way to the end and COSTCO pricing

READ THIS TO THE END!!!!

The R&D as a percentage of gross sales is not outrageous.....much of it is paid by the Federal Government in the form of "research grants". The true ripoff occurs when the largest purchaser of prescription drugs, Medicare, is specifically prohibited from negotiating a discount for volume. The lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry worked very hard to get this provision in the law. Your Congressman and Senators are owned "lock, stock and barrel" by the pharmaceutical companies. They are the largest single contributor to Hillary's campaign. Expecting change in Washington? I don't think so. Former Congressman Billy Tauzin (D-La.) who headed the House committee governing all these issues recently "retired" from Congress and opened his Washing lobbying office with a $2.5 million dollar a year contract from the Pharmaceutical industry for "advice".

The identical drug that we pay for say $5.00 each in the US sells for $1.75 in Canada. Both produced in the same factory. Why? Because the Canadian government (this applies to pharmaceutical sales worldwide, not just Canada) sets the final retail price which incorporates a "reasonable profit". The US citizens pick up the slack which provide the phenomenal profits of the pharmaceutical industry by paying $5.00 for the same pill. The politicians wave the "price control" flag or "socialized medicine" flag to justify their actions.

Of course, you won't hear anyone talking about this in the current election cycle. They would rather talk about how Hillary did or did not vote in 2002... John McCain's temper and lots of other manure. Why don't NBC, FOX News etc. promote this issue? The need and want the pharmaceutical advertising dollars.

It will probably take $5.00 a gallon gasoline for the Citizens to rise up in revolt and throw the rascals out and start fresh.

This is interesting reading – there is no mention of R&D in this which is a huge portion of prescription costs, but the price analysis is enlightening.

This is worth reading.

.............Let's hear it for Costco! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs. The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out of federal Washington , DC offices.

Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America .

......Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone should know about this. It pays to shop around! This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug prices gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. So often we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills.

The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you a re saving $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!

At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.

I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience I had to use the drug Compazine which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients.

I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked t he price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.

I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.

Tom Curtis re: Why would OEA want to control the STRS Board?

Tom Curtis to Ralph Roshong, March 15, 2008Subject: Re Why Would The OEA Want To Control The STRS Board?

Thank you Ralph,

I passed your comments along to John Curry, who composed that information, which Dan Vincent embraces.

Thank you as well for taking the time to address the STRS board in the past. I hope you received some feedback for your efforts, but I doubt you did.

Most all of our elected board members do not feel they need to be accountable to those that disagree with their lack of oversight. It appears that the board is headed right back to where it was in 2003, when 5 of the 9 board members came directly from the OEA executive committee and controlled everything. That is not healthy and should not occur.

I became active in the reform process at the same time Dr. Dennis Leone's historic paper presented to the board in May 2003, became public knowledge.

Many retirees organized and became CORE. We made a difference. We helped to force out the corrupt executive director and board of that time, all of which were found guilty of wrong-doing by the courts.

Since that time, the OEA/OFT have fought back with huge sums of money and influenced the naive and uninformed active population in this state to elect their representatives once again.

Once John Lazares (this year) and Dennis Leone exhaust their terms (next year), the unions may once again hold all of the elected board seats. If this takes place, our efforts will be in vain.

I beg you to please attempt to contact any and all other superintendents and members of the STRS you might care to help influence to vote for the non-OEA affiliate candidate, Dan Vincent. I have attached an informational sheet about him. You are welcome to send it along to anyone you desire. Dan is willing to speak to most any educational group he can schedule.

Thank you for your sincere efforts and support,

Thomas CurtisCORE member

From Ralph Roshong, March 13, 2008Subject: Re: Why Would The OEA Want To Control The STRS Board?

Well written and extremely on target. I have forwarded it to all on my email list. Thank you for the enlightenment so aptly written.

John Curry responds to school custodian's remarks in Lima News

John Curry; sent to Heather Rutz (Lima News) March 16, 2008Subject: In reply to letter to editor on 3/15/08 p.A6 (Teachers have no reason for gripes)

(Heather - This is my reply to Mr. Brentlinger's post in the 3/15/08 Lima News as copied below my reply which follows. If you wish to contact me re. this reply I would be happy to talk to you. Thank you. John Curry)

In response to Mr. Brentlinger:

Mr. Brentlinger forgot to mention a few things in his letter to the editor concerning the educator retiree who faces the $850 per month healthcare insurance premiums for himself and his spouse. I am that educator retiree and happened to retire from the same school system that Mr. Brentlinger retired from.

Yes, educators are on a higher pay scale than custodians (in Mr. Brentlinger's case), but Mr. Brentlinger didn't inform the reading public that his monthly healthcare premiums were based on a premium scale that charged him much higher rates as he only sent in 15 years' worth of contributions to the Ohio SERS rather than the 30 years I spent as an educator. Fifteen years service time is only one half of the 30 year service time necessary for full retirement benefits in SERS -- just as it is in STRS. Sure, his healthcare premiums were steeper, they should be! Mr. Brentlinger, let's compare apples to apples if we are going to compare.

John CurryWapakoneta

Teachers have no reason for gripes

CHARLES BRENTLINGERWapakoneta

I’m writing about an item in the March 8 edition of The Lima News on Page B3. It was about cost of teachers’ licenses going from $12 to $40 a year and $60 to $200 for five years.

I worked for the school for 15 years and our broker license cost $35 per year. I didn’t make the money teachers make. Some, I am sure, make at least two to three times more than I made.

Also the March 7 newspaper on Page B3 told of a teacher who said he couldn’t afford health insurance. He said he had to get a job after retiring with 30 years experience. He said it cost $850 per month. He will surely get enough to buy insurance.

I worked 15 years and have to pay my insurance through SERS at a cost of $332 a month. I get about half what I got when I retired. It has risen in cost several times. In fact, one time it jumped about $100 a month. And, when I retired, I thought it was a set amount for lifetime.

RH Jones: Advancing Ohio through HB 315

From RH Jones, March 16, 2008Subject: Support H.B. 315 to advance Ohio

To all:

What attracts people to move to a different neighborhood? Good schools? Yes! What makes good schools? Good teachers? Yes! What attracts good teachers to Ohio’s public school districts? Are good salaries the answer? Yes, they are, but so is paid hospitalization at work and in retirement; all of which is important to employing the best teachers for Ohio’s children and their future, and for the future of all Ohioans. Therefore, if Ohio is to advance forward to a renaissance of the economy, the voting public must support public education to its fullest. Including H.B. 315 that awards a steady stream of funding for retired teacher health care.

About Me

A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Baylor University School of Music, I am a professional symphony musician by background. I am also a retired elementary classroom teacher (nonmusic), having taught in the Alliance (OH) City Schools 2-1/2 years and the Columbus Public Schools 30 years. My first job was as harp instructor at The University of Texas; currently I am a Lecturer in Harp at The University of Mount Union. As a retired educator and a life member of a number of professional organizations, including the Ohio Retired Teachers Association and the Ohio Education Association-Retired, I also worked through CORE (Concerned Ohio Retired Educators, which officially disbanded 9/20/12) to help bring about badly needed reform in our teachers retirement system, STRS Ohio. My e-mail: kbb47@aol.com.